Atlanta Falcons attacking preseason with a different mindset

The Atlanta Falcons lost their 10th straight pre-season game Thursday night in Miami, however, Dan Quinn is using this preseason differently than he has before.

Blogging Dirty wrote an article last month about how the Atlanta Falcons preseason under Dan Quinn has mirrored their regular season success, in which case fans should be nervous about being 0-2. However, we clearly missed a very important aspect of this preseason.

Let’s rewind for a minute. In 2015, the Falcons roster and coaching staff were attempting to get to know each other. They were trying to acclimate to changes and become accustomed to what coaches wanted and the regular season played out that way as well.

In 2016, the players and the staff were on the same page and the preseason reflected that as well as they went 3-1 on their way to the Super Bowl.

As we know in both 2017 and 2018, there was a lot of turmoil on the staff with coordinators who were new and still trying to figure out who they were and what they had in terms of scheme, ability and cohesiveness. They just never gelled and both the preseason and regular season reflected as such. Sure, we can blame injuries too.

However in 2019, none of that matters or exists. With Dan Quinn as the defensive coordinator and Dirk Koetter back as the offensive coordinator, both sides of the ball know exactly what they have and what strengths they can lean on to be successful.

In 2019, the Falcons are using the preseason to build depth. We have been screaming for depth for years, especially up front. Everyone knows that the Falcons top 22 is among the best in the NFL, but the next 22 are critical to the success of the franchise.

Dan Quinn is willing to forgo winning preseason games in order to find the next best 22 he can and build top of the line depth to make sure this team is deep enough for a Super Bowl run. The best example would be from Thursday we all kept asking “who is (insert number)?”.

Quinn understands to find out who you really have, players have to see live action and in doing so, you are able to see how they react in certain situations. This is vital to identifying the best 53 men to finalize the roster with.

Those are the 53 that we want on this roster and the 53 that will help guide this city to their first ever Super Bowl win and if that means we sacrifice meaningless preseason games, so be it.